ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE : A poem summary.

 ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE

- John Keats

"Ode to a nightingale" is one of Keat's finest odes. An ode is a lyric usually addressed  formally to its subject, a kind of prayer to a particular thing or person. Being a poet of romantic era, Keats was a nature lover in pursuit of beauty within nature.

    In the poem "Ode to a nightingale", there is a distinct shifting of moods but this shifting of moode paradoxically is sustained by one controlling symbol - the nightingale and its song.

    The poet begins by explaining the nature and the cause of the sadness he is experiencing. The sadness is converted to a physical ache, "My heart aches". and "dowry numbness prevails" as if he has consumed "hemlock" or some opium which has eased the pain. The song of the nightingale brings about immense happiness. He is not envious but too happy in the bird's happiness.

    In the second stanza, he longs for a"draft of vintage" of the "warm south"which has long been cooled and wishes to fly away with world on the viewless wings" of poetry.

    Interwoven throughout the poem are his ever-consuming thoughts on death. In the third stanza, however, he dewells on the negatively of the life in contract to the nightingale who is happy and not burdened with the daily humdrum of life nd  mortality.

    He vividly describe the world of the nightingale, The " tender night ", The "Queen Moon" and her "starry fays" yet, he realises there is darkness amongst the leaves except for a few strains of moonlight when the freeze blew. Keat's cannot see the summer blooms from a top the trees but greases their presence with the help of the perfume.

    Keat's confesses to the nightingale that he hast been "half in the love with death" and often invited death to tke him away However, the mood is uplifted in the sixth stanza, where his thoughts move so the immortality of the bird who had entertained "the Cmpu and the down" equally. Finally, Keats realises he cannot hold onto the nightingale as it has to go elsewhere.

    According to Fogle the loss of interest by the end of the poem is an acceptance of life and death. Hence, we find that the "ode to a nightingale" is an acceptance of life and death. Hence, we find taht the "Ode to a nightingale"  is a serise of conflicts between reality and the romantic ideal of unity with nature. It is a sinuous poem encompassing all the sense of the human beings.